1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to downloading a program from a host system to a target system and, more particularly, to a method for selecting a program for downloading. The invention also relates to a system for downloading a program from a host system to a target system.
2. Background Information
It is known to bundle various versions of handheld electronic device software code with desktop software code inside a single monolithic installer. As a result, the decision of what handheld software modules are to be included has to be made at the time the monolithic installer is built. This requires that the desktop software must be redeployed each time that any handheld electronic device software code update is required for any supported handheld electronic device. Hence, there is a relatively large count of monolithic installer variants, one for each possible combination of supported desktop/handheld electronic devices. Therefore, with increasing numbers of different handheld electronic device models, the building of the monolithic installer is increasingly unsustainable.
For wireless handheld electronic devices that are supported by a variety of wireless (e.g., 2.5G) vendors (e.g., service providers or carriers), there has been a distinct requirement from those vendors to specifically test handheld electronic device software from a network-specific standpoint as well as some application-level functionality. There is also the variability of launch timelines that differ from vendor to vendor. This inserts variability into the specific software version that a vendor will launch with. For example, a vendor may go with the best available software version that, also, fits into the vendor's launch timelines.
As a result, different vendors will have “approved” different versions of handheld electronic device software for a particular handheld model at any given time. Hence, a first vendor may approve one version of software, a second vendor may approve another version of software, and a third vendor may approve still another version of software.
For example, this creates problems for the information technology department of an enterprise that desires to manage a single software load (e.g., from a personal computer or workstation). Typically, that department asks the critical question “What CD should I push out to my internal user community? The one from vendor A or vendor B or vendor C?” Hence, given the growing complexity of handheld electronic devices, such as “smartphones” and “wireless converged handhelds,” this phenomenon of various different handheld software versions for various different vendors will not be going away. Accordingly, there is room for improvement in methods and systems for selecting a program for download.